Oxford Uni picks Penrose for collegiate fund launch

Penrose MD Gay Collins and Penrose associate director and former National Association of Pension Funds head of comms Andy Fleming are preparing the comms push for Oxford Investment Management. The fund is expected to get Financial Services Authority approval within weeks.

Led by former Deutsche Asset Management chief investment officer Karl Sternberg, OXIM will be a fund-of-fund manager aimed at streamlining the university's many separate college endowments. It will also provide fund management services for unaffiliated foundations and wealthy families.

Two of Oxford's 39 colleges, Christ Church and St Catherine's, have so far committed funds, bringing current funds under management to around £100m. A third college is thought to be close to signing.Cambridge University has taken similar measures in an attempt to pool its colleges' resources into a single fund.

Financial consulting group Watson Wyatt, another Penrose client, is assisting OXIM in selecting the investment management companies through which it will invest the money in its care.

Sternberg is a Christ Church graduate and helped manage St Catherine's endowment when he was CIO of DeAM's non-US business.